How Cuomo could justify continuing the detail at taxpayer expense after the NYPD had concluded that no current threat against Kelly existed is unclear.
Dani Lever, a Cuomo spokeswoman, said in an email and phone call, “The state is not providing Ray Kelly with a police detail.” In a follow up email and phone call, she added that Kelly had never requested a state police detail.
Maintaining a large-scale police detail for a retired police commissioner, or mayor for that matter — despite a lack of credible current threats — appears to be a recent phenomenon. Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani began the practice with Police Commissioner Howard Safir.
When Safir retired in August 2000, Giuliani granted him a 12-man detective detail for the next 16 months — through the end of Giuliani’s term. At the time, Giuliani said he provided the detail because of threats to Safir’s life, but department officials denied there were any threats. The detail’s primary function turned out to be driving Safir and his wife about town and delivering his laundry.
When Michael Bloomberg became mayor in 2002, he ordered Kelly, whom he had appointed police commissioner, to provide Giuliani with a permanent police detail. That detail lasted a year and half — and protected not just the former mayor but his ex-wife, his two children, his mother and his then-girlfriend, whom Giuliani subsequently married.
As commissioner for 12 years under Bloomberg, Kelly will be remembered largely for two policies: his aggressive use of stop-and-frisk, which a federal judge ruled was racially discriminatory, and his creation, in the wake of 9/11, of a world-wide NYPD Intelligence Division.
“He did wonderful things for this city,” said a terrorism expert,” who also asked for anonymity, saying he didn’t want his name made public. “The city was well-protected by his leadership.”
Kelly now earns close to $1 million a year as the head of risk management services for the commercial real estate brokers Cushman & Wakefield.
Neither Kelly nor Cushman and Wakefield president and CEO Ed Forst returned a call from NYPD Confidential.
As of last week, Kelly still had a detail — a car and driver, hired from a private security firm.
Whether he or Cushman and Wakefield is paying for it is unknown.